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The simplified, angular planes and exaggerated features of this nude suggest the influence of carved figures. Matisse's interest in African art began around 1906, and is probably reflected in this painting. Based on a photograph rather than a model, it subverts the tradition of the academic studio nude. The austere colours are a departure from the brightness of Matisse's earlier Fauvist period.

Mme Duthuit wrote that this picture was painted at Collioure in the summer of 1907, without a model, but at a time when the artist was much preoccupied with making sculpture, which may partly account for its harsh and vigorously modelled character (letter of 14 October 1969).

Though reproduced in 1909 as 'Study of a Nude', it appears in the Bernheim Jeune records as 'Nude dragging a Cloth'. It has also been entitled 'A Bather', but has usually been known in recent years as 'Standing Nude'.

Published in:Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.493-4, reproduced p.493